Chongqing - At 7:00:09 a.m., a clinic in Wanzhou District, Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, recorded 0.0011 metric tons of medical waste. Fourteen minutes later, another entry showed the waste being handed over to a local transport company.

By 10 a.m. on July 23, the latest hazardous-waste shipment in Chongqing was already moving across a digital screen at the municipal ecology and environment bureau.

"Where the medical waste goes next, who receives it and who disposes of it will all be recorded in the system," said Luo Caihong, head of the bureau's solid-waste division. "Every step, from generation and storage to transportation and disposal, can be traced and supervised."

The platform, called "Bayu Zhifei," is Chongqing's digital system for managing hazardous waste. Built under the municipality's broader digital-governance framework, the platform connects more than 150 data categories from 19 government departments, including environmental protection, transport, health and public security. It also uses algorithmic models, artificial intelligence tools and shared datasets to identify risks and coordinate responses across local authorities.

A staff member at the Chongqing Ecology and Environment Bureau checks hazardous waste management information through the Bayu Zhifei platform. (Photo/Li Yuanyuan)

Hazardous waste includes used motor oil, medical waste and discarded chemical spray cans. Such materials may be corrosive, toxic, flammable, reactive or infectious, posing risks to both public health and the environment.

Luo said regulators previously relied heavily on on-site inspections, making it difficult to determine how much hazardous waste companies and institutions produced or where it ultimately went.

"Transport routes were difficult to track, and violations were often discovered too late," Luo said.

To address that problem, the platform assigns each batch of hazardous waste a unique QR code known as a "Yugu Code," giving it a digital identity. Combined with GPS data, the code allows authorities to track the waste throughout storage, transport and disposal.

More than 40,000 hazardous-waste-generating companies and institutions have been added to the system. Each time a batch moves to a new stage, operators scan its QR code and upload the record.

The platform also compares data across different systems to detect possible irregularities.

For example, if a company reports replacing activated carbon in an air-pollution control system but does not declare the discarded material as hazardous waste, the system may flag the discrepancy for investigation.

In January, a company in Tongliang District triggered an alert after its reported hazardous-waste volume did not match its electricity consumption. Inspectors later found that the difference resulted from a change in production methods and removed the warning.

Authorities said the platform now uses 29 intelligent identification rules and four core algorithm models. Its problem-identification efficiency has reached 85%, while the average time from discovery to resolution has fallen to two days.

The system is also intended to reduce administrative work for companies.

At Changan Automobile's Chongqing Liangjiang New Area factory on July 23, a worker pushed a barrel of used oil onto a weighing platform. The system automatically generated a Yugu Code, which staff attached to the barrel.

At Changan Automobile's factory in Chongqing Liangjiang New Area, a worker records hazardous waste items and attaches a "Yugu Code" label. (Photo/Li Yuanyuan)

Xu Yong, an environmental and safety manager at the factory, said workers previously entered more than 100 records manually each day, a process that took more than an hour.

With automatic weighing and electronic reporting, the platform has reduced companies' data-entry workload by more than 80%, according to officials.

Chongqing has also introduced a "white list" for qualified companies transferring hazardous waste across provincial borders. Online document sharing and parallel approvals have shortened the approval period from the statutory 30 days to five days, improving processing efficiency by more than 80%.

Officials said the goal is to shift hazardous-waste management from delayed enforcement to early detection, while making every shipment traceable from its source to final disposal.